Vikings Avenge Tuesday's Loss, 68-65

WORCESTER, Mass. – Salem State women's basketball sought to avenge Tuesday night's loss as they traveled to Worcester tonight to take on Clark University for their second matchup of the week against the Cougars. After a thrilling fourth quarter, the Vikings got their revenge and snuck away with the 68-65 victory over the Cougars.

Freshman, Ernidia Goncalves (Everett, Mass.) had a career-high 25 points to lead the Vikings while teammate, Liz Zaiter (Peabody, Mass.) notched a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds in the victory.

The Cougars were spearheaded by Jalin Waters (Waterbury, Conn.) who recorded 14 points off of 4-9 shooting from behind the arc. Teammates, Alaina Schatzabel (Kennebunk, Maine) and Mariah Harris (Stoughton, Mass.) each recorded 11 points, with Schatzabel grabbing 12 rebounds in the loss.

Despite struggling to find the bottom of the basket in the opening stanza, Salem's defense allowed them to control the first stanza by holding the Cougars to just five points on their 18 attempts, taking the 13-5 advantage going into the second.

The Cougars wasted no time cutting into the Viking's lead scoring six unanswered points in the opening minute to bring them within one point of the visitors. But the Vikings answered back with a run of their own as Zaiter and Goncalves combined to score eight unanswered buckets to extend their lead to 20-12 with under seven minutes to play in the half. After a layup from Julia Beebe (Andover, Conn.), the Cougars were able to tie the game at 22 and force the Vikings to take a timeout to regroup for the final three minutes of the second. Unfortunately, the timeout helped the Cougars secure their first lead of the game after a three put them ahead of the Vikings by one. The final two minutes of the half saw the lead exchanged between teams before a Cougar layup in the closing seconds brought the score at break to 32-30 in favor of the home team.

After trading buckets throughout the opening part of the third quarter, the Cougars saw their largest lead of the game after Waters hit her second three in just as many minutes, putting her team up nine and the score at 47-38. From there the Vikings would chip away in the remaining three minutes to head into the final ten minutes as the scoreboard read 51-48 with the home team holding a slight advantage.

Goncalves went 1-2 from the free line in the opening seconds of the fourth to give the Vikings life and bring her team within two before the Cougars struck back to go up 56-47 with eight minutes to play. With two minutes and 30 seconds to play in the game Salem tied it at 63 a piece before taking their first lead of the half after Zaiter made a jumper to send the game to 66-63 in her squad's favor. Waters would bring Clark within one after a perfect trip to the line with under a minute to play but the Vikings remained solid to take the 68-65 victory on the road.